There are two main barriers to the transition to 4K Ultra HD (UHD). One is a lack of content, and that's being worked on by companies like Amazon and Netflix. The second is price, or at least it's supposed to be. One thing we're seeing at CES this year is an aggressive attempt by companies to push out 4K Ultra HD hardware without egregious pricing premiums attached. On the PC side, ASUS announced a 28-inch 4K monitor for $799, and on the home entertainment side, Vizio unveiled a lineup of 4K Ultra HD smart TVs starting at $999.

These aren't gimped TV sets, either. Vizio's P-Series sport LED backlighting with advanced local dimming technology and 64 active LED zones, HEVC H.265 codec for Ultra HD streaming, Vizio's V6 six-core processor that combines a quad-core GPU and dual-core CPU, built-in 802.11ac dual-band MIMO Wi-Fi, and smart functions, to name a few of the features. Why a six-core SoC? Vizio says it developed the chip to deliver advanced graphics processing and an even faster smart TV user experience.

Even if you're not interested in a 4K set, you have to like the price points, which will help drive down the cost of Full HD 1080p sets. Unfortunately, Vizio didn't say when these televisions will be available at retail.